In 1904, determined to reach France and begin a new life, 10-year-old Gene began a rambling odyssey that led to his stowing away aboard a merchant freighter—only to be caught and put ashore in Aberdeen, Scotland. After taking a variety of jobs, he became a bantamweight boxer in Liverpool at age 16 and by age 17 had become a lightweight champion.
With 42 professional bouts behind him, Bullard finally achieved his childhood dream on November 28, 1913, when he arrived in Paris. On August 3, 1914, Germany declared war on France, and the next day its armies invaded France and neutral Belgium.

Bullard, though still an American citizen, decided that he wanted to defend the country in which he had sought equality. He joined the Foreign Legion on October 19.

As a soldier in the Legion’s 3rd Régiment de Marche and later the 170th Régiment de Ligne, Bullard fought in the Champagne and Verdun campaigns with such distinction that he was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Star as well as the Médaille Militaire. He was wounded three times, the last—on March 5, 1916—leaving him too disabled for further infantry service. It was then that Bullard thought of rejoining the fight as an aviator, his ambition stoked by that friendly wager at the Café Copoule.



With the help of some influential friends, Bullard was accepted into the French Aéronautique Militaire as a machine-gunner. He started training at Cazaux on October 6, but while there he met a fellow Legionnaire, Edmond Charles Clinton Genet, who had already qualified as a pilot and was on hand for gunnery training.
Genet told Bullard about the Lafayette Flying Corps, an organization for farming American volunteers out to French squadrons, and explained that Helen Vanderbilt had established a fund from which its pilots could draw 50 francs (then about $30) a month (at that point Bullard’s Legion pay was a miserly 30 cents per month). With Genet’s backing, Bullard joined the LFC on November 15, requested pilot training and 15 days later reported to the aviation school at Tours.
EUGENE BULLARD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Bullard

AMERICAS FIRST BLACK FIGHTER PILOT FOUGHT FOR THE FRENCH
https://www.historynet.com/eugene-bullard-americas-first-black-fighter-pilot.htm


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